Win to Die
by Shinigami Hilde
Summary: It's all done, finished- The Shikon no Tama is restored- but at what cost? All is won, all is lost...


Disclaimer: Takahashi Rumiko owns the planet and I own Bolivia…wherever that may be…

By: Shinigami Hilde

All is won, all is lost…  
  
...Win to Die...   
  
It was over. All over...Naraku was dead, shredded by a combination of Kagome's arrow and Inuyasha's claws. Kikyou had vanished-leaving the last final piece of Kagome's soul to return to her. And the Shikon no Tama? It was finally restored. Ready to be re-purified...But at an overwhelming cost.   
  
Blood. It blurred his vision, burned his soul, sealed his fate. And the loss of it made it nearly impossible to move. The dark red, sticky liquid covered everything; him, the floor, the walls, the ceiling...everything. And it was all that he could see. He painfully forced his eyes to slide open. He was breathing erratically-it was getting hard to get enough air now. Carefully he turned his face towards the rest of the room. The slitted golden orbs were roving in search of his companions.   


Spotting s few human shaped lumps a few yards off, he attempted to roll onto his stomach and crawl to see if they were ok. He coughed up a lot of blood as he rose unsteadily on all fours, ignoring the gaping hole in his abdomen, broken spine and tattered ear. Very slowly he made his way to the closest lump. His eyes widened.   
  
"Sango…Miroku…No…" He hissed barely under a whisper. Dead...the demon huntress and the monk were lifeless heaps...in denial and with a roar of pain he shook their bodies in a useless and futile attempt to rouse them. "Sango! Miroku! No! You can't be dead!" He grimaced and gasped out of breath already. 

  
Another tiny lump caught his eye then, buried under some marble rubble. He clambered slowly bleeding, still on all fours, over to it. Ignoring the enormous jolts of pain coming from all over he dug into the rubble in which the tiny body was buried in to reveal the lifeless form of the kitsune, Shippou, and beside him a tattered Kirara.   
  
"No!" He croaked out, barely able to speak, tears stinging his eyes as he picked up the kit and held it close. Something he had never done before. Finally, in a rush of agonized fear, he whipped his head around from side to side, facing the fact that one of the group had not been accounted for-the one he cared most for.   
  
"Kagome!" He called out in a hoarse wail. "Kagome! Where are you?! Kagomee!!"   
He then spotted a final heap a little way off from where he crouched. His eyes flew open wider and, he moved as quick as possible to the girl's side despite the enormous pain from his mortal injuries. She was still breathing, but incredibly shallowly. Blood covered her entire body; a good majority of it her own. "Kagome?" He asked in a breathless, hoarse whisper as he grabbed her jaw and turned her face to his.   
  
Her eyes flickered and barely slid open. At seeing him the faintest of smiles curved her deathly pale lips. "In-u...Ya...sha..." She barely whispered, a tickle of blood making its way down from the corner of her mouth.

  
"Kagome," he responded tears now filling his eyes, threatening to break loose. It seemed they would be of blood those tears. She was dying, and he knew it-and when she died-so would he.   
  
"Is-Is-it o-ver?" Di-did we win, Inuya-sha?" She asked eyes wide open and trusting struggling for breath. Inuyasha, unable to speak, nodded vaguely, his tears clouding his vision of her. He blinked them away resentfully. Her expression changed to a slight frown and she tried to lift her pale hand to his face to wipe away the tears that now fell so freely from his eyes. "Then-why-are you crying, Inu...yasha? -It's o-ver..." she opened her other palm, revealing the complete Shikon no Tama, and held it up to him. "The-jewel is fixed...Now you can-become a full youkai...Why the tears?"   
  
Inuyasha shook his head vehemently at her offering. "I don't want it any more!" Her snarled angrily. Kagome looked at him a little shaken, out of her days. He looked at her, his eyes glazed over with emotion. "Kagome...Oh Kagome...You-you're dying... I-I don't want the jewel..." he struggled to breathe himself. "Just you..." he said in a passionate hoarse whisper. "All I want-I-want-just you...Ai-ai shiteru, Kagome-"   
Joy filled the last glimpses of her face as Inuyasha's last words hit her. She knew she was dying, she'd accepted that a little while ago. "Oh Inuyasha...I know...I know..." She answered breathlessly.   
  
"-Then you can't die yet!" He insisted weakly. "Miroku...Sango...Shippou...Kirara...All dead...Kikyou gone...Naraku eliminated-we won-but-for what? -You're the only one I have left-You can't die!" 

  
The small smile reappeared on her pastel features as she slowly raised her hands to cup his cheeks-letting the Shikon no Tama fall forgotten to the floor. "Inu-yasha-" She gasped out. He looked at her, tears falling uncontrollably now, because he knew that he was dying too. He'd finally realized something he'd wanted for a long time-and neither of them were going to live to fulfill it. "Inu-ya-sha...Ai shiteru..." she breathed out. Her final words.   
  
Just before Kagome lost all warmth to her body, just before Inuyasha went completely cold, just before her soul, finally complete after the disappearance of Kikyou, left her forever, Inuyasha took her in his arms and kissed her. Lying beside her down on the destroyed marble floor, he kissed her passionately, pouring all the love he had pent up inside him since Kikyou pinned him to the tree. Everything went into this closing with the one girl he could have truly loved. Everything, his life force.   
  
Inuyasha died in Kagome's arms. Kagome kissed him with all the ardor she could muster, but could not call him back. She eventually fell limp as well, and became cold to the touch. Her hands fell listlessly from his side and her eyes, dulled with the onset of death she breathed her last breath into the mouth of her to late lover.   
  
Death now held sway in the room where the world had been saved by the star-crossed lovers and all was silent. All was said and done, finished falling into the deep repose of no return...   
  
...Epilogue...   
  
As the two subsided into everlasting sleep-the Shikon no Tama began to glow an iridescent pink beside them. It began to rise from its place, where it had fallen, left forgotten in a passionate moment now gone, and silently drifted to the center of the room. Its final use was now imminent, having been purified by the final pure feelings of those who had restored it; it began to glow a soft but brighter pink that grew to a soft iridescent and lustrous white. It's light began to expand and encompassed the entire room, smoothing out and repairing the rubble, before it began to fade away...   
  
The jewel faded and eventually vanished, while down on the floor of the restored room,-six pairs of eyes flickered open for a second chance...   
  
...Owari...


End file.
